The Blows From A Sinner's Hammer

Prepare to be devastated and overwhelmed.  

Not just a little, but significantly. 

If you are truly Christian, this post should crush any misunderstanding that you might have that you can do the right thing or do it “on your own” or through your own works. It is only through God’s grace and love at work in us. His work, not ours. It is not through human efforts.

Everyone believes they love. Christians especially believe they love God and other people. The Bible is the benchmark for what love is. No place is this better exemplified than in 1 Corinthians 13. A chapter sandwiched between two chapters on gifts. Although love is not a gift, it is a fruit or outwardly manifested characteristic of the Spirit indwelling the believer. The love chapter is another issue though. Everyone has gifts, not all have love. It is assumed that the Christian has to have love, right? Wrong. What did Paul say to the Christians at Corinth? If we have not love we are only a clanging cymbal. In other words: Pounding people over the head about Jesus without love is a bludgeoning not evangelism. No matter how gifted we are, this is what we become if we do not use our gifts in a loving way. No one will hear the gospel from a Christian that is an idiot. People just hear noise and inconsistency.

The love in 1 Corinthians 13 is not, in the clearest sense, the love between a husband and wife on a wedding day which is what these passages are often used for. The love here is to be the primary characteristic to and from our brothers and sisters in the church. It is the love that is giving and sacrificial and expects nothing in return. It is the love Jesus freely gave sinners…as they nailed Him to the Cross. It gives without expecting reciprocity.

If we truly love as Christians, we should be able to replace the ἀγάπη/agape love repeated in 1 Corinthians over a dozen times with our own names. In other words, if I take verse 4 it would read, “Andy is patient and kind…” It is right at the beginning of this chapter that I begin to cringe and writhe under the uncomfortable nature of what these words are telling me. The weight and gravity these passages hit me with when I begin inserting my name into this passage cannot be understated. It is like the blow of a hammer right between my eyes.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

If [Andy] speaks in the tongues of men and of angels, but [has] not love, [Andy is] a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if [Andy has] prophetic powers, and understands all mysteries and all knowledge, and if [Andy has] all faith, so as to remove mountains, but [has] not love, [Andy is] nothing. If [Andy gives] away all [he] has, and if [Andy] delivers up [his] body to be burned, but [has] not love, [Andy] gain[s] nothing.

Here is where the Scriptures get exceptionally hard to stomach because of my sin.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

[Andy] is patient and kind; [Andy] does not envy or boast; [Andy] is not arrogant or rude. [Andy] does not insist on [Andy’s] own way; [Andy] is not irritable or resentful; [Andy] does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but [Andy] rejoices with the truth. [Andy] bears all things, [Andy] believes all things, [Andy] hopes all things, [Andy] endures all things.

The silence inside of my skull is deafening. My conscience is unsettled. The only word that comes to mind after this is: FAILURE. If I tried to say these things about myself, I would be a blatant liar. It is at this point I can no longer continue this experiment with 1 Corinthians 13. So I go in search of other Scripture that I can obey and am more comfortable with.

So, I continue on with my linguistic experiment. Let’s try it with a few other verse, shall we? It will require a little bit more creativity with the subjects, nominatives, accusatives or objects but the point will be made clear enough.

Ephesians 5:25-   “[Andy], love your [wife], just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, [Andy you should] love [your] wife as [your] own body. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, [Andy] never hated [his] own body, but [Andy] fed and cared for [his own] body, just as Christ does the church…”

Ouch. Oh dear Lord….and the ringing of the hammer blows continue to resound in my ears.

Mark 12:30-31 “And [Andy] shall love the Lord [his] God with all [Andy’s] heart and with all [Andy’s] soul and with all [Andy’s] mind and with all [Andy’s] strength.’ The second is this: [Andy] shall love [his] neighbor as [himself].’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Do I love God with every ounce of my being? Honestly? Seriously? The heart that beats within my chest convicts me. I know I don't. The truth is, lately because of struggles, at times I don’t even pray to him every day. For that I am ashamed. For that, I know my true state with God.

John 14:15 “If you love Me [Andy], you will keep My commandments.”

Can I keep His commandments? No, that is why Jesus came. He could and did. I cannot, so I accept Him and what He has done for me.

John 3:16 “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that [if Andy] believes in him [he will] not perish but have eternal life.”

Proverbs 17:17 “[Andy] loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”

It is at this point I can no longer continue this experiment with Scripture at all. It is at this point I have to accept that Christ is the only way these things are truly possible in my life. It is this that drives me back to the Gospel. It is at this point that I realize that I am the nail and I am the Roman soldier that drove the nail into Christ’s hands and feet. It is at this point that I realize I am a peasant in the crowd that screamed, “Crucify Him!”

If I therefore follow the true logic of what these passages are telling me, I have never properly loved my friends, my parents, my siblings, my wife, my children...not even God. When I realized this and finally came to grips with it I was mortified. I now realize I did not know how to love properly at all. I realize what the Scriptures tell me is absolutely true. I can only love because God first loved me in grace and mercy. These are the two exact things I need to show others to be able to love them and be loved by them…grace and mercy. These two characteristics, both stem from love first. Mercy and grace fall out from love. Love is the wellspring from which mercy and grace spring forth. This then shocks me further. I am neither merciful nor contain worthwhile grace. Lord have mercy on me.

I realize I can only be a conduit of grace from God towards others since God is the source of all grace. The only way I can be a conduit to allow God to role through me is if I empty myself and humble myself until I die to self. I still have not done so. It points me to the last few passages of of this post. The first passage is the only passage in the Bible that I can truly embody properly and obey. I find it in Romans 3:10-18.

Romans 3:10-18 ~ [Andy] is not righteous, no, [no one is]; [Andy doesn’t] understand; [Andy does not] seek for God. [Andy has] turned aside; [Andy has] become worthless; [Andy does not] do good, [no one does]. [Andy’s] throat is an open grave; [He uses his ] tongue to deceive. The venom of asps is under [Andy’s] lips. [Andy’s] mouth is full of curses and bitterness. [Andy’s] feet are swift to shed blood; in [Andy’s] paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace [Andy has] not known. There is no fear of God before [Andy’s] eyes.”

I can obey these things in Romans 3:10-18 because of my fallen condition. I sin well and obey sin well. Obey the righteous commands of God? Eh...not so much.

The concluding passages are the ones the get me back to the state in which I can best embody what God has called me to. It is only in the state described in these next passages that I can act as the vessel or conduit God wants me to be. They require that I empty myself so God can work through me. I need to remove myself from my own picture otherwise I impeded the work of the Spirit in my life. It requires humility. The very thing that is absent in my Romans 3:10-18 state is returned to me in Romans 3:19-26 and Philippians 2:4-8. The very thing that is lacking when I don’t have love.

Romans 3:21-26 ~ But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for [Andy] who believes. For there is no distinction: for [Andy has] sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and [is] justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith [by Andy]. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over [Andy’s] former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of [Andy] who has faith in Jesus.

Philippians 2:4-8 ~ Let [Andy] look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. [Andy], have this mind, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 

Jesus…forgive me, I am a wretch. Jesus wept because of sin like this. I weep also.

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Okay, now you do it. I'm literally giving you permission to cut-n-paste this entire post onto a Microsoft Word document. Then hit Replace in the upper menu bar. When it prompts you "Find What:" you need to type in Andy and then type in your name in the "Replace with:" entry field.  You will then have the same post with you name in lieu of mine.

Example: Insert you name in the empty spaces...

If [______] speaks in the tongues of men and of angels, but [has] not love, [________ is] a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if [________ has] prophetic powers, and understands all mysteries and all knowledge, and if [_________ has] all faith, so as to remove mountains, but [has] not love, [_______ is] nothing. If [_______] gives away all [_______] has, and if  [________] delivers up [his/her] body to be burned, but [has] not love, [_______] gain[s] nothing.  [_______] is patient and kind; [_______] does not envy or boast; [_______] is not arrogant or rude. [_______] does not insist on [his] own way; [Andy] is not irritable or resentful; [_______] does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but [________] rejoices with the truth. [_______] bears all things, [_______] believes all things,  [_______] hopes all things, [_______] endures all things.

Can you say all these things are true about you from 1 Corinthians 13? Are they true about your intents and your character? I couldn't. I suspect nobody can. Can you admit the truth about yourself? When I did the world began to change and I knew it could never be the same.

[Addendum: Many of my Christian and non-Christian friends tell me that there is eloquence in this ability to put meaningful emotions/feelings into words. This profundity with words is God-given. Some see it as a beautiful gift. I see it as a curse because of the ugliness revealed in the pictures that are painted with the words. If there is a beauty, it is in God’s gift itself, not the truths about me that these words end up revealing. Sometimes it is hard to look in a mirror for fear of the sinner looking back at me.]